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NFL All-Pro rubs salt on Cowboys fans' free agency wound
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

If you've been a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, or even looked at how they operate over the course of the 21st century, one thing has become painfully apparent.

They love to shop in the discount section. We have discussed it at nauseam, and it is quite clear they won't change. Even when their backs are pressed against the wall.

Just last year, the Cowboys were in dire need of help at linebacker. 

Rookie DeMarvion Overshown went down with a season-ending injury in the preseason. Leighton Vander Esch would go down with a season-ending injury in week five, which would ultimately lead to his retirement from football. The rest of the room was full of people who had underperformed their entire careers or were still in the first 3 years of their careers, with not much playing time.

They needed help, badly. What did they do to help a struggling room? They did what they always do: Shop at the bottom of the barrel.

The Cowboys would sign former first-round pick, Rashaan Evans to their practice squad, and he eventually would be called up to the 53-man roster.

It did not last long.

Evans would not make it a season on the Cowboys roster, and he would be cut following being arrested for drug possession. 

The Cowboys had a chance to sign a former All-Pro earlier in the year, in Bobby Wagner but seemingly weren't interested. However, Wagner added salt to the Cowboys fans' free agency wounds by revealing Quinn tried to get him to Dallas in previous seasons but there was one problem. 

They lowballed him on their contract offer. 

Bobby Wagner confirmed it himself, on Kay Adams' show Up & Adams, which you can see below.

"I have a ton of respect for (Dan Quinn) from afar," Wagner told Adams. "We actually tried to make it happen a couple times, it just didn't work out from a contract perspective."

When asked why it didn't work out with Quinn while he was at Dallas, Wagner simply said: "You've got to ask the Cowboys there." 

Lowballing players appears to be in the Cowboys' DNA. They even did it with a ring of honor candidate this off-season. This would be the second time they would do it in one off-season.

And guess what?

They struck out both times.

Hopefully, this can be a valuable lesson for the Jones family and that players are smarter than to accept a low contract offer to go to the Cowboys, just because you're the Cowboys and you were dominant 30 years ago.

It's a new day in the NFL, and it's time the Cowboys wake up.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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